The State of the Nation: America's Interstates

American politicians aren't great students of history. Combine religious faith with government power? It's why the Pilgrims left England. The defeat of a military superpower by a small, determined, nationalist insurgent force? We celebrate that every Fourth of July. Allow retail banks to deal in speculative financial instruments? It wasn't a great idea back in 1929, either.

In the 19th century Great Britain was the world's leading economic power and had the world's best transport system. Britain's railway network allowed people and goods to cross the country with impressive speed and efficiency. The fast train from London to Liverpool took just 4.5 hours 120 years ago; you might -- might -- do it 30-minutes faster by car today if the traffic gods are on your side.

America's Interstate Highway System is the 20th century equivalent of the Britain's Victorian-era rail network. Like the British railways, the Interstate network is the product of a nation at the peak of its economic power. But now America's most important transport infrastructure is in danger of declining into disrepair. Just like the British railway network.

The Interstate Highway System is perhaps the most enduring legacy of Dwight D. Eisenhower's presidency. As a young army officer Eisenhower had experienced America's poor roads firsthand while traveling in an Army convoy across the country in 1919 (the journey took 62 days) and thirty-five years later, as Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe at the end of World War II, he'd immediately grasped the strategic importance of Germany's high-speed autobahnen in terms of the rapid deployment of troops and materiel.

The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 authorized the construction of the Interstate network. Today, more than 47,000 miles of Interstates crisscross the country, and it's estimated the highways account for one-quarter all the vehicle miles traveled in America every year.

The problem is, they're wearing out. A recent report by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) suggests an investment of about $220 billion a year from 2010 to 2040 will be required to keep the Interstate Highway System in serviceable shape. Current spending is barely half that. As a result, 38 percent of vehicle miles are now traveled on Interstates with what the ASCE report calls deficient pavement, while 2820 Interstate bridges are in need of repair.

And things don't look like getting better soon -- even the current inadequate level of funding is only on a temporary basis, pending the approval of a bill that includes a requirement to approve the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline. The Republicans want the pipeline; the Democrats don't. Result? Deadlock, while the Interstates keep falling apart. The pipeline approval is a totally separate issue, and should be treated as such. It has absolutely no business being bundled in with a bill to fix and maintain our national highways. (It's difficult to see how there can be any link between Keystone and American transport policy at all, as most of the pipeline's oil is destined for export markets, and no oil company -- even the American-owned ones -- is required to provide cheap oil for American consumers. The global market sets the price, and the 1.1 million barrels a day the pipeline is planned to handle isn't enough to impact that.)

That nasty, petty squabble is only a sideshow, however. The fact that regardless of Washington's shenanigans funding for the Interstate Highway System is half of what it needs to be, that a national treasure is being allowed to fall apart, would shock Eisenhower-era America.

The 18.4 cents-a-gallon federal gas tax that goes to the Highway Trust Fund to help pay for the repair and maintenance of the Interstates hasn't been increased since 1993. Simple logic says the tax should be increased to help make up the funding shortfall, but of course there isn't a politician on either side of the aisle with the balls to suggest it. They're worried we'd howl with outrage.

And we probably would. We don't like taxes, and we don't like big government, even though the Interstate Highway System would never have existed without big government to build it and taxes to pay for it. Before the Federal Aid Highway Act, highways were a state responsibility, which of course meant there was no coordinated planning or construction, with the usual farcical results -- in the mid-50s the Kansas Turnpike famously ended abruptly in a farmer's field at the Oklahoma border.

America's Interstates are the sinews that connect the country's economic muscle; the arteries that enable the free and efficient flow of citizens and commerce. Construction of the Interstates was more than just road building on a grand scale -- it was nation building. And if the Interstate network is allowed to decay, what does that say about America today?